Dell World 2015: Day One – Product Design and The Future Workforce

Day one of Dell World kicked off with press sessions on the thinking and research that influences Dell’s product design, and the future of the work force. The overarching goals of consistency in UI and UX, and converging consumer products with their enterprise/commercial brethren starts early on in Dell’s design studios. To encourage ‘synergy’ between teams an open office layout is used, and sharing of design language along with materials knowledge is pushed. The desire with this is that if a customer has familiarity with one Dell product that they will be able to quickly and easily know how to work with a new product or one from a different line. This can be seen now in the EqualLogic, M1000e, and FX2 management consoles. One area it very much falls apart, and is an acknowledged pain point, is Dell’s online presence which is the subject of an ongoing usability study and redesign.

Where the two sessions start to mesh is with the XPS line of products, which Dell envisions as the converging point of consumer desires and enterprise demands. Toward that Dell has their design teams located across EMEA and the US, pulling talent from diverse disciplines to meet the expectations of customers. A key driver in this convergence of product lines is the rapid advancement in materials and component packaging allowing for thin and light weight devices that still retain excellent ergonomics.

When looking at the future work force, despite all the media driven hype of millennials shaking things up, research actually shows that their desires for flexibility in location and time to work extends across the generational ‘gap’. The keys to companies being successful moving forward center around diversity, recognizing employees as individuals, flexibility and proper management.

Stats…
May 2015, millennials (18-34 years old) become largest segment of the work force.
64% of employees do some amount of work from home.
One in four millennials would consider a new job if it offered what they perceived as better technology.